


Brother

by petreparkour



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Brotherly Love, Feels, Gen, Hurt Thor (Marvel), Hurt/Comfort, Loki (Marvel) Feels, Loki (Marvel) Needs a Hug, No Slash, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Pre-End Credits, The Hug (Marvel), Thor (Marvel) Feels, Thor (Marvel) Needs a Hug, Valkyrie is a boss, description seems thorki, goddammit hela, holy god so many feels, not thorki, the hug we needed but didn't get
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 11:40:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14307879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petreparkour/pseuds/petreparkour
Summary: After destroying Asgard, Thor is hurting and alone.Until Loki comes, and then he isn't.





	Brother

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own any of Marvel's stuff, and that includes Thor, Loki, and Valkyrie's characters.

“Thor?” Loki said through the door. He waited for a few beats, expectantly awaiting a response. He frowned when he didn't get one. “ _Thor._ ” He repeated insistently. “We need you out on the bridge. Korg needs somewhere to steer, and we’ve no idea where your precious Valkyrie is—probably off drinking somewhere, so that means it's your turn.”

  
  
When he still garnered no response, Loki rolled his eyes. Typical of his brother to lock himself into his room, blaming himself for something he couldn’t control–like the destruction of Asgard. “Thor, none of this was your fault.” Of course, some of it actually was, but Loki’s goal was to get Thor _out_ of his room, not guilt him even more. He could save that for another day, when it wasn’t quite so fresh. “But we need you out here now.”

 

Again, nothing. Loki frowned. It wasn’t typical of Thor to ignore him fully; his brother would usually at least tell him off through the door. He stepped closer to the wall and could almost swear he heard Thor’s breathing, wheezy and desperate. Loki’s brow furrowed. Why would Thor be in such distress? Surely he had gone to a healer already–

 

No, of course he wouldn’t. Not when there were other wounded Asgardians that needed attention. Thor wouldn’t take a healer until every single Asgardian citizen was healthy as possible. Not even then, most likely.

 

“Thor, if you don’t open the door in five seconds, I will come in.”

 

Loki gave his brother the luxury of ten beats before concentrating his magic and burning right through the lock. If Thor cared so much about the state of his door, he would have opened it. He pushed the rusty thing open and glanced around the room, eyes dark. If he was right–

 

Oh, he was. Thor was sitting on his makeshift bed, back to Loki, slumped over his knees, breathing uneven and raspy. As Loki watched, one hand went towards his eye (or what was left of it), only to jerk back down again once it got close.

 

“Thor!” Loki said loudly. Thor jumped, as though he hadn’t heard all of Loki’s declarations through the door. He lifted his head and twisted partially towards the door, as though it pained him to do so. Yes, Loki was right. Thor had _not_ sought out a healer. His eye, where their sister had slashed right through it, was still caked with drying blood. Bruises encircled Thor’s windpipe like a necklace, and his good eye was dull and exhausted.

 

Oh, Loki was most definitely right.

 

“Oh, you great big idiot.” Loki told him as he strode towards his bullheaded brother. “Have you ever heard of a healer?”

 

Thor offered up a meager half-shrug. “There are others who need help more than I.”

 

Loki rolled his eyes again, purposefully ignoring the fact that Thor's voice was dry and cracked so he didn’t set off his determinedly obtuse brother. “Not really, as they need their king in good health in order to survive as well.”

 

Thor only shrugged again. Loki’s eyebrows drew together as he noted Thor’s continued difficulty breathing. He nudged his brother’s arm and gestured towards the other man’s chest. “Armor off.” He told the king bluntly.

 

Thor squinted up at him, seemingly baffled. “What?”

  
  
“Armor off.” Loki repeated. “If you’re having trouble breathing, you can’t have your ribs constricted by the armor. Take it off. I’ll go find a healer, you buffoon.”

  
  
Loki strode to the door and almost left before he heard his brother’s almost pitiful voice. “Loki?”

 

The trickster took a deep breath, begging himself to have patience, before hissing out a response. “Yes?”

 

“Er—” Thor cut himself off, and he sounded so _embarrassed_ that Loki had to resist the urge to turn around. “I don’t think I can.”

 

“Can what?”

 

“Get the armor off.”

 

Loki’s eyebrows raised of their own volition and he turned on his heel. “Why not?”

 

Thor pressed a hand against his ribs, and for the first time, Loki noticed the darker bloodstains on his brother’s tunic. “The blood’s stuck it to me.”

 

For a moment, all Loki could do was stand there. He hadn’t received any major injuries–hell, the only injuries he’d received were to his pride for being tricked by his brother and electrocuted for a good half an hour. Sure, when Thor had turned up from distracting Hela he’d been missing an eye, but he’d shown no other sign of hurt, and Loki had missed the last parts of the fight between his brother, the Valkyrie, and Hela when he was going to fetch the crown of Surtur. It seemed unfathomable that _Thor,_  the man who had, only a few hours previous, been lit up with lightning and decimating his foes with ease, was _injured._ But from the way that Thor held himself, from the way he swayed, Loki knew it was true.

 

He broke free of his thoughts and walked back towards his brother, being careful not to touch him again. “Where?” He asked clearly. When Thor’s brow furrowed, Loki repeated his question. “Where are you injured?”

 

“Oh. Er–” Thor shifted on his place on the bed, turning to face Loki better and gestured vaguely to himself. “Ribs. Shoulder. Back.”

 

Loki fought down the boiling anger and exasperation that was rapidly rising to the surface. “So, everywhere, essentially.”

 

“Essentially.”

 

Loki bit down a curse and reached down into his magical core. It was still severely depleted from the battle, and wouldn’t do for healing wounds, but he could rid Thor of most of the blood that caked his clothing. “Hold still,” Loki told his brother before reaching out.

 

The armor was saturated with blood, both old and new, so it was impossible for Loki to know where the actual wounds were, and he didn’t dare impose on his brother’s mind or body, lest he be blasted by lightning, as mortals say, six ways to Sunday. So instead of concentrating on the wounds, Loki instead tried to rid the clothing (and, consequently, his brother’s skin) of all the blood on it. He could feel his seidr absorbing the horrid fluid, swallowing it up and turning it into pure energy. For the most part, it worked.

 

Thor didn’t make a sound the whole ordeal, but Loki could feel his muscles tense up and hear the bed creaking from where Thor gripped it, as the half-dried blood pulled its way free of the raw wounds. When he finished, Thor let out a low groan–of relief or pain, Loki couldn’t tell–and released the bed frame, leaving finger-sized imprints on the steel frame. The god of thunder reached to undo the straps of his armor, but Loki beat him to it, easily reaching the straps before Thor could.

 

“Now,” Loki announced quietly. “I can either pull it off or cut it off. Your choice. One will be more painful than the other, and I bet I know which one you’ll pick anyway.”

 

“Pull it off.” Thor told him, voice rough. “I’ll need to wear it later.”

 

Loki sighed, but dips his head. “On the count of five.” He told his brother. “One, two, three–”

 

With a big _yank,_ Loki pulled the armor straight off Thor, who made such a strangled noise that it made even Loki wince sympathetically. Loki tossed it aside and assessed the damage to his brother’s body.

 

There was a deep slash along Thor’s ribs, along with a spear wound to both shoulders and another shallower stab on his solar plexus. His entire torso was mottled with bruises and abrasions, but they seemed to be older wounds. He gently gripped Thor’s uninjured shoulder and turned him to assess the damage to his back.

 

There was a deep stab wound in the center of his back, looking aggravated and extremely painful. Loki winced sympathetically and reached a hand out and gently touched the wound. Thor hissed immediately and maked a strangled sound, and his skin hummed. Loki took several frantic steps back as Thor’s entire body became wreathed in lightning, his lone eye sparked and his chest heaved.

 

“Thor.” Loki said clearly, hands out in front of him. “Thor, it’s me. It’s just me.”

 

His brother didn’t seem to hear him, and he hunched over, pulling at the barely set wounds and starting them bleeding again. Loki’s jaw tensed, but he stayed where he was. He knows that Thor is delirious, he _does,_ and he knows Thor needs more help than just bandaging his wounds, but his brother is a king and Loki _needed_ to fix him before someone comes looking. The entirety of Asgard was waiting for their king, and they needed reassurance. “Thor. Focus on my voice. You need to think. Use the thing _inside_ that thick skull of yours.”

 

The lightning flickers and dulls, but doesn’t die. Thor seemed to focus on him, although Loki couldn’t quite tell, as the molten electricity filling Thor’s gaze made it impossible to gauge where he was looking. He shook his head desperately as lightning curled around his arms. “You’ll just hurt me again.”

 

And something about the way Thor said it, the pain-filled tone and set to his shoulders and the sheer _conviction_ that Loki was going to betray him, hurt him, just made Loki want to hug his brother until all his doubts went away.

 

But he knows that these wounds are too deep, too old, for him to heal.

 

Loki swallowed.

 

“I won’t.” He promised softly, hands held out in front of him. “I swear, I will not hurt you. Never again.”

 

Thor buried his head in his arms and shook his head again, the stark lightning flickering in the space and showcasing Thor’s distress. Loki breathed past the lump in his throat. God, _he_ caused this. This lack of trust, this ingrained fear–this fear that lay past the barriers that Thor put up, those of happiness and battle cries and lightning, nearly as complex as Loki’s own. And despite his promises of separation, of admiration, of forgiveness, Loki knew that Thor could never free himself from those doubts. Not anymore.

 

“Thor.”

 

Loki’s stubborn brother only shook his head again, shoulders trembling. He let out a half-grunt, half-whimper that nearly tore Loki’s heart in two. But he saw the blood leaking down Thor’s chest from his curled-over position on the edge of the bed, and he knew that Thor would bleed out eventually.

 

“ _Thor._ ” Loki insisted.

 

Thor shook his head at Loki _again,_  and provided a verbal answer, albeit raspy and clogged with repressed screams. “ _No._ ”

 

“Brother, _please_.” Loki is nearly begging now, and finally Thor’s lightning goes out.

 

“Brother?” Thor’s voice is disbelieving and racked with pain, physical and emotional. “You truly think us brothers?”

 

Now Loki can’t even tell if he’s going to receive a berating or a hug. The look in Thor’s eye is true, unbearable agony, and the trickster doesn’t even consider leaving, sending for a healer and letting them deal with this bullheaded godling.

 

“We are brothers, are we not?” Loki asked evenly, approaching slowly but steadily

 

“Not by blood.” Thor said uneasily, seemingly confused as to what Loki’s goal was. “You’ve made this clear before.”

 

Loki rolled his eyes. “Have I?”

 

Thor scowled. “Yes, _Loki._  So, if you’d prefer, I’ll go find a healer now.”

 

Loki’s idiot of a brother attempted to stand up, but he immediately sank down with a groan, wrapping an arm around his sternum. Loki set his jaw and gave up on the ‘won’t hurt you’ strategy. He strode forwards briskly, ignoring the brief spark of electricity. “Just let me help, you big buffoon.”

 

Thor looked like he wanted to argue, but his shoulders slumped in what seemed like acquiesce. Loki sighed. “Thank goodness you’ve got _something_ inside that thick skull of yours.”

 

Thor doesn’t even respond. Loki gently reached out for the closest wound, which happened to be a stab wound on his shoulder, and extended his magic.

 

The next hour was spent with Loki healing what he could in the wounds, bandaging what he couldn’t. He spent most of his energy on the eye, since that was more difficult to bandage. The raw flesh was covered by an eyepatch that Loki conjured out of thin air. Thor was silent the whole time, brooding.

 

When Loki finished, he stepped backwards. Thor loosed a shuddering sigh and finally lifted his head to look at Loki. “Thank you.”

 

Loki merely tilted his head. He gestured for Thor to stay and rest a bit and made for the door, but he hesitated. He glanced back at Thor, his _brother_ who stood up for him when he shouldn’t have, who believed in him when no one else did. Who was now sitting, wounded, defeated, in a ship that did not belong to him. Loki felt something twist in his gut.

 

Before he could second-guess himself, Loki strode back to his brother and hesitantly grasped him by the shoulders and embraced him.

 

It wasn’t not a proper hug, because Loki was standing and Thor was sitting, so Thor’s head was pressing into Loki’s sternum, but Thor shuddered and then relaxed into Loki’s embrace. His forearm was wrapped gently around the back of the neck, a gesture of affection that usually only Thor used. Loki could feel the tension corded in Thor’s entire body—stress, anguish, pain—but Thor pressed his forehead into Loki’s stomach, and Loki let him.

 

Facing the door as he was, Loki saw when Valkyrie stalked up to the open door with her usual swagger and opened her mouth. When she saw Loki, hesitantly embracing his brother, and Thor, bandaged up and shaking, Loki expected her to make some sort of demeaning remark or joke. But instead, she closed her mouth and a half-smile slung itself across her lips.

 

She waited several minutes until, finally, Thor’s shaking subsided. Then, without much of her usual malice, she announced, “Your Majesty! And, ah, Lackey!”

 

Thor jerked and pulled away, peering over his shoulder at the warrioress. He offered her a meager smile, and she nodded slightly, the smirk still on her lips. “Asgard awaits.”

 

She gave Loki a knowing look and crossed her arms, stepping to the side. Loki cleared his throat, stepped aside, and threw Thor’s tunic at him. Thor managed to pull it on himself, and Loki pulled him to his feet whilst pretending not to care. When Thor seemed steady on his feet, Loki quirked an eyebrow at him. “Shall we, brother?”

 

Thor studied him for a moment with his one good eye, then smiled faintly. “Yes, we shall… brother.”

 

Valkyrie threw her arms up in exasperation and spun around, starting down the hall. “Enough with the sap-fest already!”

 

Thor smirked and snapped his fingers. Electricity crackled at his fingertips and he winked at Loki (well, it was hard to tell, because Thor only had one eye to blink or wink with). When they reached the doorway, he flicked the crackling lightning down the hallway towards her.

 

An enraged “HEY!” echoed through the ships, and the two brothers ran for their lives.

 

_fin._

**Author's Note:**

> God, I cried while writing this.
> 
> This is my first fic on AO3, and i'm planning on posting more in the next few weeks. hope you enjoyed:)


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